Mechanisms of De Novo Methylation in Cancer

University Of Southern California, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract The objectives of this grant, which has been funded for almost 30 years, have been to understand the mechanisms for the establishment and inheritance of DNA methylation patterns and to develop drugs which can interfere with cytosine methylation and reactivate silenced genes. This research has led to the recent approval by the FDA of two DNA demethylating agents (5-aza-CR and 5-aza-CdR) for the treatment of myeloid dysplastic syndrome. In the next five year period of the project, we hope to take advantage of epigenomic analysis to understand how DNA methylation patterns are established and maintained by an interaction between DNA methyltransferases and specific chromatin components. To do this, we have developed a custom NimbleGen array allowing for the analyses of nucleosomes, histone modifications and DNA methylation in an integrated way at 1,800 transcription start sites (TSS) in normal and transformed cells. In Specific Aim 1, we will utilize the tiling array to map nucleosomes in both normal (PrECs) and transformed prostate cancer cells (PC3). We shall then determine how interfering with DNA methylation pharmacologically in PC3 cells or genetically in HCT116 colon cancer cells alters the distribution of histone marks focusing on the histone H3-K27me3 mark applied by the polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2). In Specific Aim 2, we shall determine how the epigenome is reorganized during the restoration of DNA methylation to HCT116 derivatives (DKO) in which two of the three DNA methyltransferases (DNMT1 and DNMT3B) have been genetically knocked down. In Specific Aim 3, we will follow-up on our new results which show the strong anchoring of the de novo methyltransferases DNMT3A and 3B to nucleosomes. We wish to determine how the enzymes interact with nucleosomes so that we can understand how specific patterns are established. In Specific Aim 4, we will continue our quest to develop DNA demethylating drugs which are more stable than those currently approved by the FDA for cancer treatment and which are able to reverse aberrant DNA methylation, histone modifications and nucleosome positioning. Achievement of these aims should have major impact in our understanding of the epigenetics of cancer and have direct relevance to new strategies to treat and prevent cancer.